Brave the Shadows
by Consecotaleophobia
Summary: Hazel and her friends are sucked into the world of Runeterra, but Hazel doesn't know where her friends are. She ends up in Ionia and meets her favorite champion, Zed. However, it wasn't exactly the desirable introduction she would've like. Will Hazel get through Zed or will she be another ignorant human in his eyes?
1. Chapter 1 Introductions

A girl with black hair and blue eyes ran through the doors of her home right after her roommate unlocked it. It was finally Friday, the day that everyone always seem to be eager for. She hopped on a chair and turned on her computer. There was probably nothing in the world that could stop Hazel's obsession with computers.

"Skye! You're going to be playing with us, right?" The black-haired girl exclaimed.

Her roommate rolled her eyes and answered, "Yeah, but Hazel, come eat first."

"After one game?"

"No. You have 10 seconds to come to the table."

She couldn't defy Skye even if she wanted to. Skye was the one in charge around the house. Hazel grumpily walked over to the dining table. Her roommate had prepared spaghetti with a side of garlic bread. They started eating with small talk in between each bite here and there. After the two finished eating, it was Hazel's turn to wash the dishes, much to her dismay.

"Finally done…" The black haired girl groaned.

Skye stuck her tongue out and teased, "Hurry up; we're waiting for your ass to get on."

She nodded and started League and Skype up on her computer. Lately, Hazel didn't have the time to even touch the computer because of college. The girl was too busy cramming months and months of work into her head for finals. Now, it was time to sit back and relax. Hazel put on her headset, logged, and accepted her friends' invite to the lobby.

Amongst her group, there was a unique rule they played by. The rule was to pick two city-states and the champions that came from there was their champion pool. Hazel's choice were Ionia and the Shadow Isles, mainly Ionia. There were some occasions where she would play Thresh and Evelynn, but that was rare. She loved Ionia and simply thought that it was the only city-state she needed. Her friends have been pressuring Hazel into playing more Thresh due to her godlike plays but she refused.

A male voice blustered, "Fucking Finally, Hazel. You took forever."

"Sorry, Aaron. Had to do the dishes," She apologized.

Aaron was an impatient guy but he was extremely fun to be around. Inside of League, the boy was a very aggressive jungler who often went in without a strategy. Somehow, he carried games by doing this. His desired city-states were the Void and Zaun. Some of the group members were a little iffy about letting choose the Void since it wasn't a city-state nor a place in Runeterra. However, they let him choose it because it was a part of the game.

Another male voice was heard and it said, "Can we start already? I want to play Garen."

That was Vincent. He was a goofy guy and often messed around, but no one paid much attention to it. In game, he loved deleting people's health bars and being able to do damage when build straight tank. His favorite city-states was Demacia and Bilgewater.

Skye asked, "Well, is everyone ready? Where's Tim?"

Time exclaimed, "Here!"

He was the quietest person in the group. He often stayed quiet until someone spoke to him. The group called him the "male version of Sona" because everyone always forgot about him and Tim was a music prodigy. Most of the time, he was the one making the big plays and Hazel thought he could be a higher rank if they didn't hold him back, but Tim didn't really care. All he cared about was having fun with his friends. Tim took the support role so that he wasn't in the "spotlight" and let his friends enjoy the glory. His city-states were Bandle City and the Kumungu Jungle.

Last, but not least, there was Skye. She was Hazel's best friend and the one that was always taking care of her. The girl was the leader of the group, always calling the shots making sure they would have their best chance at winning. Skye often changed her play style depending on the game. One game she could be overly aggressive and the next the girl could be as passive as a Lulu cupcake. She assumed the ADC position. Her heart lied with Piltover and Noxus, an odd combination.

Hazel turned around to see Skye, with her laptop on her lap, nonchalantly chilling on the couch.

"Start it, will you?" Hazel asked, impatiently.

The girl pressed the start button and the wait to find a match was only a mere second. Everyone accepted the match and was taken to Champion Select. Hazel wanted to go mid and chose Zed. Her eyes filled with glee as Zed played his quote. Her favorite champion of all times was Zed. She was the most comfortable and only felt a certain type of confidence with this champion. Albeit a bit difficult, that made all the more fun to play, despite the recent nerfs that hit him.

Aaron, who obviously was going jungle, insta-locked Kha'Zix. Meanwhile, Vincent chose Garen and Tim chose Lulu. Skye was debating whether she should go Jinx or Caitlyn. In the end, the girl chose Jinx because of her insane personality and the joys of hitting the long ranged permaslows. Everyone was transitioned into loading screen where they could analyze the enemy team. There was a Volibear Top, Rengar Jungle, Katarina Mid, Caitlyn ADC, and Zyra support. It was a very annoying team to play against. Hazel started with a longsword and three potions. Everything was normal until she facechecked the river bush. She was introduced by a flip and proceeded to get attacked. Hazel had to blow her summoners and flash over the wall but to no avail and ended up giving Rengar first blood. Fortunately, they wasted at least 3 flashes and 2 ignites. Kha'Zix and Garen had to flee blue buff and start at enemy blue. After respawning, Hazel went back to mid lane, ready to face Kat; her confidence obviously wasn't phased. She continuously harassed Kat with the shurikens. Aaron was only behind a bit and ganked the lanes successfully despite his rough start. Skye and Tim were winning their lane and always won the trades against Cait and Zyra. Garen was dropping that disrespect in the top lane. Watching him do so made Hazel giggle.

Unfortunately, Rengar and Katarina managed to catch Hazel off guard when she was checking the other lanes. Despite her efforts to stay alive, she died once more. Hazel sighed and bought a Hexdrinker, Vampiric Scepter, and a couple of pots to stay alive.

Vincent taunted, "Wow, Hazel. Feeding much?"

That comment brought her confidence down a bit. The game went on as usual with the exception of Rengar and Katarina carrying their teams to victory. Somehow, they maintained dragon control and map pressure. It was very difficult to move freely without the fear of a fed Rengar jumping out at you. Around 35 minutes, the enemy aced them and pushed mid. They managed to take down the Nexus turrets and proceeded to attack the Nexus. Everyone typed their "GG"s and the most peculiar thing happened. Their Nexus only had one hit left, but the enemies surrendered. Everyone was confused, of course, and the enemies typed "Happy Christmilk, have a free game" and left the lobby. It was mid January. Why were they celebrating Christmas now?

Hazel ended up with the score 0/5/1. She tried her best.

'Maybe the nerfs are effecting me...' She thought.

However, it was only one game and one game didn't mean anything. The night was still young so they decided to keep on playing. The group rotated between from their respective city-states and occasionally switched roles every game. Time flew by quickly and none of them noticed it was 3 am. It was effecting hazel the most since she wasn't used to staying up that late. The girl tried to stay awake but the fatigue was getting to her. At the start of the game Hazel faceplanted the keyboard and went to sleep.

Vincent chuckled and said, "Did she really just fall asleep?"

Aaron laughed and asserted, "Sleep is for the weak."

"Maybe I should have checked up on her before the game…" Skye mumbled as she walked over to her sleeping roommate. She tried shaking her awake but it didn't work. The girl sighed and looked at her screen. Skye raised an eyebrow to see a window with yellow text generating something. The text was too fast to read because you could only see it for a split second. There was a percentage bar at the bottom and it was wasting no time filling itself up. After a few moments or so, the window finished whatever it was doing.

"Hazel, what the fuck did you download this time?" Skye irritably asked whilst shaking her. Suddenly, she heard Tim screen from Hazel's headset.

The girl pulled Hazel's headset from her head and put them on.

She yelled, "What happened to Tim?"

The other two certainly heard it because she could hear the shakiness in their voice.

"I-I d-don't kno-" Aaron managed to choke out before ending with a scream.

"What the hell is going on?!" Skye yelled.

Eventually whatever was taking their friends got to Vincent. Hearing Vincent and Tim scream was rare and it sent a shiver down her spine.

The girl continued to shake Hazel and called her name in attempt to wake Sleeping Beauty.

She managed to wake up but it was too late. Two vortexes opened on their computers and started to pull the two away from each other.

"Hazel!" Skye yelled.

She was still half-asleep to even notice what was going on. Before Hazel knew it, her best friend was gone.


	2. Chapter 2 Meeting the Kinkous

The vortex was like going down a slide backwards and Hazel was getting dizzy from the ride. Unfortunately, it stopped at least 5 feet from the ground, so there was going to be a painful fall. The girl landed harshly on her back, giving her enough adrenaline to stay awake. Several cracking sounds was heard, so Hazel hoped that was the sounds of twigs and branches snapping. Her vision was extremely blurry, but she managed stand herself up. Her back cracked numerous times when she tried to stand up straight.

"Ow… Am I getting old?" The girl mumbled, rubbing her back.

She stood up and observed her surroundings. Apparently, cherry blossoms bloomed during this time of the year. Hazel squinted her eyes and saw a building off in the distance.

She pondered out loud, "Maybe, there's people who could help me."

The girl started walking towards the building and as expected, it took forever to get there. Her legs were sore from the long walk and the fatigue was really getting to her now. She yawned and kept walking.

"I'm really regretting playing the computer so much now," Hazel mumbled.

It was true. Her parents got her a desktop at the age of 6 and everyday, she would sit there playing it, non-stop. She blamed her brothers for playing video games in front of her. Hazel managed to get to her destination and sighed of relief. The night was still young so hopefully there was at least one person awake. She took a good look at the building; it had an elegant frame and the building's overall architecture loosely reminded her of Feudal Japan. To top it all off, there were numerous cherry blossoms surrounding the building.

Hazel opened her mouth to call someone out, but she something move in the corner of her eye.

"Who's there?!" She yelled.

No response. The black haired girl turned her attention back to the entrance. Suddenly, there were many shadows. Not just any ordinary shadows, but bloodthirsty shadows that took the shape of what looked like a well equipped man. They all had red eyes that were just glaring at her with contempt. Hazel could just feel their stare pierce through her. They all had blades connected to a gauntlet on their arms. Oddly enough, these shadows looked familiar and so did the shrine. The shadows were intimidating enough for the girl be frozen still. A man started walking towards her, but she couldn't see what he looked like because of the darkness but the girl could hear his painstakingly loud footsteps. All she could make out was the man was what all the shadows took the form of and a horrifying pair of conspicuous red eyes. This man walked down the stairs, with his bloodcurdling stare locked onto her. His footsteps had a steady pace and he stood up with a confident posture. This felt so familiar to her, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Where has she seen this man?

"State your name and purpose," He asked in a emotionless yet bold voice.

Hazel swallowed nervously and managed to choke out, "H-Hazel."

Honestly, she didn't know what to say next. It wasn't like the girl wanted to be here. She rather be sleeping in her lovely bed, but it seemed like it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. A few clouds disappeared, revealing a full moon. The moon shone brightly on the man's face. The girl gasped. Hazel couldn't believe. She just couldn't believe it. The moonlight revealed the man's identity to be the Master of Shadows: Zed. Was this all an elaborate prank? No. How could that explain the vortex that took her to this place? Perhaps it was all a dream.

Zed stopped several feet away from her and raised an eyebrow. He most certainly had never seen Hazel before in Ionia and her clothing did not originate from Ionian… or Runeterra for that matter.

"Z-Zed, I-I'm your summoner, Achluophobia," She continued.

The man threw a shuriken at the girl as a mean to prevent her from talking any further. Thankfully, it only grazed her face, leaving a long but thin cut under her eye.

He exclaimed," Leave now or suffer the consequences!"

It didn't take long for Hazel to start running. It was as if her feet were like they were moving on their own. She honestly didn't know where she was going; the girl simply ran in the opposite of the shrine.

Zed chuckled and walked toward the shrine. He turned back to the forest where Hazel ran off into. Achluophobia, the fear of darkness. She was a Summoner and she summoned him in the Fields of Justice? Oh, the irony. Though, he was curious as to why her sudden appearance startled him so much. She seemed like a harmless person rather than a threat. Why did he feel the need to prepare so many shadows? Zed shrugged it off but perhaps… Keeping a close eye on her wouldn't hurt. She could make a lovely addition to the Order of the Shadows. If he recalled correctly, the direction she was running towards the Kinkou's base.

Eventually, Hazel lost her footing and tripped. Her breathing was becoming labored and her vision was blurring once more. Before she lost consciousness, she saw a girl wearing green running to her aid and a shrine that was similar to Zed's place.

"Shen! There's someone hurt!" The girl in green yelled.

Hazel groggily woke up in an unfamiliar room. The bed wasn't comfortable but it was better than sleeping on twigs and branches. There was little to no furniture decorating the room which only contained a bed, a dresser, a mirror, and a painting. She yawned and stretched her arms and got out of bed. The girl noticed her reflection in the mirror and saw that someone had bandaged the cut Zed caused. Suddenly, there were sharp pains in her knees, but she didn't remember injuring herself. Maybe Hazel scraped her knees when she fell.

"Oh. You're awake," A female voice stated.

She turned around to see the girl dressed in green. Her attire consisted of a mask, matching arm guards, thigh high socks, and a very unique dress that you wouldn't see back where she lived.

The girl pulled down her mask to reveal a smile and introduced, "My name is Akali. I was the aided you when you were hurt."

Hazel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Akali? There was so much to take in.

"Where am I exactly?" She asked rather impatiently.

Akali laughed and answered, "We're in Ionia. Have you lost your memory as well?"

She turned to leave and said before Hazel got to say anything, "I have to run some errands. If you wish to talk about some things, speak to Shen in the courtyard."

Hazel sighed after Akali had left her alone. She guessed her only option was to meet the rest of her champion pool, but not after pinching herself to see if this was all a dream. Nothing. The girl sighed wandered out of her room in search of Shen. Unfortunately, her sense of direction wasn't the best. She easily became lost and had to ask several ninjas for directions. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Hazel finally found her destination. She opened her mouth in awe at the sight. The courtyard was simply captivating; there was a small waterfall that led to a pond filled with Koi fish and a plethora of beautiful plant life decorating the large space.

"Your clothes tell a story, young one," A male voice said. "You're not from here, are you?"

The girl was startled by this man because she was too busy admiring the courtyard and wasn't really paying much attention to anything else. Hazel squinted and tried the source of this voice and spotted a figure dressed in all blue meditating. It seemed like monochromic clothing were a thing around these parts.

She shook her head and answered, "No. Akali told me to come to talk to you."

"Tell me. What is your name and where are you from?"

"My name is Hazel and I'm from a place called Earth, specifically California."

"Your eyes are not hazel at all. They are as blue as the ocean. Also, you originated from the dirt and trees?"

Hazel raised an eyebrow at his response. Dirt and trees?

"N-No, no! That's what the planet is called!" She exclaimed when she realized what he had meant.

"A place named after an element. Is there a planet named 'Fire' as well?" He teased.

The girl nervously laughed and started twiddling her fingers.

Shen asked, "What is bothering you, young one?"

"If this is Valoran, then I don't belong here. Earth is not even a place in Runeterra."

He stood up and walked to Hazel and place his hand on her forehead.

"Did you get enough rest?"

Upon further inspection, his face was completely covered except for his glowing yellow eyes.

She slapped his hand away and retorted, "I'm being completely serious. A vortex that formed on my computer took me here."

He raised an eyebrow and concluded, "Your clothing does vouch for you… However, the rest of Runeterra is largely unknown."

How could she have persuaded him that she did not hail from this land? Then, it hit her.

"I'm a summoner! Achluophobia! I can prove that I'm a summoner. You and Zed are sworn enemies. You're the leader of the Kinkou and you work alongside the Fist of the Shadows, Akali, and the Heart of the Tempest,Kennen and Zed is the leader of Order of the Sha-"

"That's enough. You have given me enough evidence, 'Summoner.' You haven't met Kennen and yet, you know his title."

Hazel sighed of relief after she actually persuaded him. She was actually surprised that she remembered their titles. After all, the girl only did play Zed and the occasional Thresh and Evelynn, but there were some times that she would play Kennen and Akali. Shen turned his back and started to leave the courtyard.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" The girl yelled.

"It's time for training. Would you like to join?" He answered.

She stated, "Well, it depends on what kind of training."

The man laughed and said, "We're going to run 6 miles, 3 hours of practicing our skills, ano-"

"I'm fine! I don't need any training! Hazel interrupted. She assumed the "we" part was him. Akali, and Kennen. It seemed like they all managed things around here and were very close to each other.

Shen chuckled and left the courtyard. It was her turn to leave now. There was no reason for her to stay in the courtyard anymore. Upon leaving, the girl was met by a shot purple ninja about a meter tall. Of course, it did not take long for her to find out who it was. It was no ordinary ninja that stood before her; it was the Heart of the Tempest, Kennen. This Yordle did not give her a welcoming, friendly look at all. If anything, it looked like contempt.

"Do not overstay your welcome, 'Summoner,'" He warned and walked away.

"What the hell did I do now?" She blustered.

It was time for her to return to her room since where else could she go? Now, it's time for another 10 years to find her way through this shrine.


End file.
